


Unshaken

by Beatonen



Series: War and Peace [6]
Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, I tagged Whiterose but its going to take a while, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2019-12-26 00:45:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18272369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatonen/pseuds/Beatonen
Summary: Ruby finally returned to the team, there is still many hardship to go through  during the road to recovery.With the team leader back and the threat of the Grimm more present than ever, will they ever see a world without Salem's darkness?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heya! Long time no... write! I'm excited for this part of the series, as it is the last one!!
> 
> But yeah, don't really expect neat, constant updates, for I am working on other fics and I have a dog, now...
> 
> Anyway, I'll do my best! I hope you'll like it!

_Flying over the luxurious green of the Emerald forest was hypnotic. All this green, covering everything as far as the eye could see until, in the distance, green was traded for red, almost an eyesore beside the Emerald forest._

_Getting carried by the wind, the raven observed attentively down below, in search of something. Something important._

_Probably the most important thing of her life, both for humankind and herself._

_Circling up as the wind shifted under the raven’s feathers, her red eyes stayed fixated on the ground, searching the clearing she was looking for. After agonisingly long minutes of searching, spending a precious half hour as she grew worried, thinking that she might have missed it, she was about to backtrack until she_ finally _recognised the clearing, in the distance, an opening of trees amidst the dense forest._

_Immediately diving for it, the raven hurried, flapping her wings with force as she closed the distance in record time, and as soon as she entered the cover of leaves, she changed, landing on her feet in a jog before slowing down, glancing around through the slits of her mask. The place was exactly the same as it was, years ago. The grass so green, the trunks dark brown and rough, the trees seemingly so alive and healthy-_

_A couple of paces away was one of the largest pool of slime on Remnant, hidden away in the middle of the Emerald forest, its surface shimmering like it was under a constant breeze, and because of its size it was the only place where one could hear the whispers hanging in the air around it. Unafraid, she stepped closer, her hand closing on the handle of her sword reflexively, searching the dark pool for something important._

_But as the minutes stretched, she was left to wonder. What if she had been late? Too late again, in the same place and same situation of that fateful day. What if it was all over again-_

_Her attention was brought to the side, where a sudden bubbling sound came from the slime, and through the slits of her mask, she could see the dark liquid move, then something ‘floating’ on the surface._

_It was a person. The most important person of humankind._

_As the person was slowly being pushed, being rejected by the slime, they were brought closer to the ground until the body rolled over on the grass, the slime sliding from their form and turning the green blades to yellow and brown under them, revealing their face._

_She felt her heart stop in her chest, caught in a moment of weakness as the scene felt so familiar to her._

_She would go to her. She would realise she is dead. Dead, because she hadn’t been fast enough, wasn’t there on time even though she had all the signs, even though-_

_A weak coughing fit interrupted her thoughts, and she was brought back to reality as the important person was struggling to breathe, and she hurriedly made her way over, rolling the person so they laid on their side as she almost ripped her helmet off, sending it rolling to the side with little care as she was met with a face that only came in her dreams, now._

_“You… You look just like her,” she heard herself murmur in wonder, seeing her hand trembling over the person’s shoulder._

_A soft grunt escaped the woman’s lips as the coughing stopped, only to be replaced by jolts that ran through her entire frame, and she moved back, letting the woman roll on her back again._

_But as she kept looking, the jolts turned into wild jerks, and under her very eyes, the woman’s left arm started trembling uncontrollably, jerking and jolting, and it wasn’t until she heard the dry snaps of bones breaking that she understood what was going on._

_As the unconscious woman whined quietly, her left arm was deforming, the nearby slime creeping towards it as it coated the arm in black and made it inhumanly long, the hand big with long, clawed fingers that kept jerking and cracking with each jolts._

_“No,” she let out in a breath, her eyes widening in horror as she saw the other arm starting to jerk, seeing the veins grow darker under the woman’s pale skin. “No! Not again!”_

_Quickly patting herself blindly in search of what she needed as she tried to keep the woman down, she finally found the small vial, staring at its glowing purple content for a second before ripping the cork from it with her teeth, spitting it to the ground and, cradling the woman’s head and holding her mouth open, poured the liquid between pale, cracked lips._

_When the woman started to choke, trying to spit out what was in her mouth, she firmly pressed her hand over the woman’s lips, leaning over to whisper in her ear._

_“Swallow it! Swallow!”_

_Keeping her hand in place until she felt the woman swallow out of instinct, she waited until the woman stopped her jerking and jolting, waited until her breathing went back to normal, and only now she pulled back, her hand slipping from chapped lips and ghosting over her cheek, unsure of what to do next._

_Then, the woman started retching, and again she quickly turned her to the side for her to expulse as much as she could. It was almost comical as powerful jet of slime was coming out of the woman’s mouth in waves, leaving very little time to breathe as her body jolted with every heave._

_“Gods, how much did she give you?” She quietly wondered as the retching kept going, the poor woman gasping for breath every chance she could._

_Then, as the flow of expulsed slime seemed to slow until it was nothing more than a trickle dripping past dried lips, she leaned over, observing her for a moment._

_“Fight, little rose,” she whispered to the woman, carefully brushing back a few strands of long hair from her face. “It’s not over for you yet. You just have to keep fighting in her place.”_

_Coughing for only answer, the woman whined weakly as her body trembled, and the impossibly long, angular arms returned to normal in a cacophony of bones snapping back in place and, face covered in sweat, the woman stirred, fluttering her only eye open._

_One silver orb glanced around confusedly, still trapped in a haze, until it fell on her, blinking slowly._

_“Yang?” The woman let out, before consciousness slipped away from her._

_Pulling away as if she had been burned, she had to remember how to breathe properly again as the woman’s breathing was back to normal, her entire being back to normal, and she noticed at this moment that something else had been rejected from the pool, and she recognised the woman’s weapon._

_Big and crude, like her brother’s._

_Climbing to her feet and shaking her head in an effort to clear her head, she stared down at the woman at her feet, observing her carefully and finding all the little things showing that it wasn’t…_ her _. She had been too late, back then. And now… now everything had changed._

_Her hand gripping tightly the handle of her weapon until it clattered in its sheath, she drew it in one quick motion, before slashing the air beside her and tearing the space there, a dark red and black portal opening. Planting her sword in the dirt, she took a knee beside the woman, not finding the strength to hold back her hand when it pushed back a strand of hair, that was the same color as hers…_

_“Tell her I did something good, for once,” she murmured to the unconscious woman. “Tell her… Tell her I stayed for something important, for once.”_

_Letting out a sigh before gathering the woman in her arms, she rose to her feet, looking down at the woman’s face as it laid on her shoulder._

_“You have yet to fulfil your destiny, little rose,” she whispered, before facing the portal. “So keep fighting.”_

_Then, knowing where the portal led, she managed to place the woman through it and when she felt her weight gone from her shoulders, she backtracked, grabbing the woman’s weapon and threw it in the portal, before taking her sword to sheath it again, the dark red maelstrom disappearing with a strange tearing noise._

_Left alone in the forest, she let a breath escape her lips before her eyes turned to her helmet, lying on a patch of green grass and, with a sigh, went to fetch it, holding it between her hands to look at it for a moment more._

_A soft breeze blew, somehow warm in the colder air of the coming winter, and it wrapped around her like a warm caress, causing her to close her eyes to enjoy it. In the remnant rustling of the leaves overhead, she let out a soft sigh as she could imagine the person she thought it was._

_“Tai can say what he wants, but… The little rose is the only thing I have left from you, too,” she whispered to the wind, knowing that somehow, it was always listening._

_And, as it always did, another breeze blew, wrapping around her as she put on her helmet again, and with the wind so close to her, she let it carry her as she changed to a raven, leaving the green forest behind in a flap of wings, a few feathers the only remains of her passage there._

 

****

 

Having Ruby back left them in a euphoric state. To take a nap and woke up later, only to realise that Ruby was still here, with them, that she was _back_ with them was the best feeling of the world. And they could tell Ruby felt the same, too.

But, there were moments when they remembered that, despite being a year for them, Ruby had been held prisoner for _a lot_ longer than that, and their first wakeup call was when Ruby was offered food.

Giving Ruby’s state, the leader wasn’t allowed to eat much, and she had to start with liquid food first, and the thing the nurse brought Ruby could barely be called soup. It was more flavored water, with maybe three noodles and a few chunks of something that vaguely resembled chicken.

But Ruby stared at it long enough for it to go cold, her mouth hung open and her only eye filling with tears and wonder.

When her hand was shaking too much to properly bring the spoon to her mouth, Yang was the first to help her, delicately taking the utensil from her sister’s grasp and scooping some of the liquid, before bringing it to Ruby’s mouth.

The soup must have been tasteless and even bitter now that it was cold, but Ruby closed her eye all the same, her features scrunching up as she had let out the tiniest whine as soon as it touched her tongue.

It was maybe halfway through the bowl that Ruby threw it all up. And when, later, the doctor only said it was because Ruby had eaten too much too quickly, they blinked, glancing at each other.

The next soup was thicker, a vegetable soup that smelled strongly of tomato, and this time Yang made sure to wait between spoonful scoops, a few minutes in between, and though Ruby complained about it even her knew it was the best way if she wanted to keep her meal. She kept it all this time, and even complained about eating too much, making Yang arch a single eyebrow at what was assuredly the world’s tiniest bowl.

As the days passed in the powder-blue hospital room, Ruby slowly looked better, taking back just enough strength so she could move about the room. Still not strong enough to do it herself, Ruby asked Yang to wash her hair properly, as the leader could still feel a couple of tangles that remained from the quick and basic cleaning the nurse had given her, when she was still unconscious. The blonde, ever so careful with hair, did her best to untangle Ruby’s incredibly long hair, not missing the way her sister would tense up whenever the brush pulled the hairs a bit too much.

Weiss and Blake were often gone, preparing for Ruby’s return to the house after a long week spent in the small bed. Of course, there were still pills for Ruby to take and she had to rest and take care of herself until she was back to full health, but bringing her home was another step for her recovery.

But as they were alone, standing near the window as Ruby looked over everything she could see with awe filling her eye, angling her head so she could see better even if she had an eye missing. Upon noticing how Ruby kept hiding the scar on the left side of her face, Blake had thoughtfully brought her an eye-patch, and Ruby had been wearing it ever since.

As they were looking over the busy street down below, Yang carefully glanced at her sister beside her, seeing her with her forehead pressed against the window to better see. Yet again, she shortly wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her, or if she was simply dreaming about her sister standing right beside her, so very nearly home. Suddenly overwhelmed by the sheer relief and joy of knowing Ruby was within arm’s length, she felt her throat constrict slightly, and she swallowed, unable to resist.

 “Hey?”

Blinking, Ruby’s eye turned to her, questioning.

“Can I hug you?”

After a second of surprise, a smile spread on Ruby’s lips as her sister gave the smallest nod, and she stepped closer, carefully and gently wrapping her arms around Ruby’s frame, muting her worry when she felt how frail she was.

There was a moment of content silence as her sister leaned her cheek against her shoulder, almost timidly looping her arms around her waist, and when Ruby let out the tiniest sigh, it made her smile as she tightened her embrace slightly.

“I can’t wait to have clothes,” Ruby suddenly mumbled against her shoulder after a moment. “My butt is freezing in this gown.”

Chuckling in response, Yang then tried to close the gown on Ruby’s back as her sister giggled against her shoulder, and it was like this that the door opened, Blake and Weiss entering the room before pausing when the sisters froze, and as Blake opened her mouth to say something, Weiss swiftly beat her to it.

“I’m sorry for _butt_ ering you, but here Ruby, I have some clothes for you.”

The smaller woman held the box in front of her with such a proud and satisfied smile that it made Yang let out a startled laugh while Blake merely groaned, rolling her eyes all the way across Remnant as she closed the door.

“That was terrible,” she finally sighed, wiping a tear from her eye as Ruby’s cheeks were painted in soft pink, fumbling with the back of her gown to try and close the flaps.

“You still laughed, though,” Blake commented dryly, taking a seat on the comfortable, padded chair beside the bed.

“Thanks, Weiss,” Ruby mumbled, still a bit embarrassed as she stepped closer to the smaller woman, who had set the box on the bed.

The smaller woman all but perked up, standing beside her partner as Ruby rummaged through the box with the same attention as an eager and excited puppy, seemingly waiting for the leader to find something. Curious as to why Weiss looked so proud of herself, she stepped closer, leaning over Weiss’ shoulder to see in the box, just in time to hear Ruby’s quiet gasp as she found what Weiss had hid in it.

On the bottom of the box, buried under the clothes, were Ruby’s red headphones, along with the smaller scroll the leader used to store her music.

“I know music has always been your draw back,” Weiss was saying, her voice holding an excited note as the smaller woman kept glancing up at her partner, anxiously taking in her reaction. “Since you still have a few days to pass here, I figured I would bring it with me.”

Visibly shook by the thoughtful gesture, Ruby pulled out the headphones and device almost reverently, before clutching them to her chest as she looked up at her partner, breath amiss and single eye as wide as saucers.

“Thank you,” the leader breathed, her voice managing to carry so much gratefulness that it made Weiss a bit uncomfortable, thinking the gesture wasn’t worth of that much attention, but she dipped her head all the same.

As Ruby was returning her attention to the headphones, Weiss was still staring at her partner with attention, happy that Ruby was, with a stupidly blissful smile stamped on her lips whenever the leader would look up to smile at the smaller woman.

Yang shared a glance with Blake, seeing the same fondness _and_ exasperation as they could almost see a wagging tail behind Weiss, the image of an excited puppy even stronger now.

“Maybe you should change before trying it on,” Blake gently proposed, returning her eyes on the leader and earning both Ruby and Weiss’ eyes as she did. “Put some pants on. That way, Weiss will stop staring at your butt.”

As Ruby strangely shrank under the teasing, blushing slightly, Weiss merely scoffed, a pink tint coloring her pale cheeks.

“I made _one_ joke!” The smaller woman defended herself, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. “Can’t you let me live it down?”

The playful chuckle answering her sounded almost like a purr as Blake squinted her eyes slightly, one of her ears flicking lazily as her golden eyes settled on the smaller woman, and instantly Weiss’ demeanor softened. Both her and Yang knew that this peculiar phenomenon was the faunus’ way of showing how happy she was, embracing a bit more her feline traits over the years.

“Never,” Blake was smiling, crossing a leg over her knee with an ease that screamed satisfaction.

This time, it was Weiss’ turn to roll her eyes, although it was fondly, and she simply chuckled as she caught sight of Ruby in the corner of her eye, holding the box tightly as she was slowly backing away and towards the end of the room, where the door to the bathroom was. Upon seeing her sister struggling to hold the box with one arm as she patted the wall blindly behind her in search of the door handle, she stepped closer.

“Hey lemme help you-”

“I’m fine,” her sister replied, interrupting as her voice was a tad hard. “I can do it alone.”

Stopping dead in her tracks, Yang felt the smile that was on her lips falter at Ruby’s tone, blinking even, but nonetheless let her sister manage without help.

“Okay,” she mumbled as Ruby, puffing a breath as a bit of red crept up her cheeks, finally found the handle and opened the door, closing it as soon as she entered.

Taken aback by her sister’s behavior, she turned on her heels only to find the room was in stunned silence, as both Blake and Weiss were staring at the bathroom door with the same surprised expression as she had earlier. But upon noticing Blake’s ears flicking slightly, her wife’s attention zeroing on the bathroom door, she knew Blake could hear something that they couldn’t.

And when Blake, after listening in for a moment, merely waved her hand in front of her, gesturing quickly to the chairs across the room for them to take a seat and even insisting on it, she instantly moved to one, Weiss doing the same. When they were sat, Blake leaned over to grab her book on the nightstand, then opened it casually, and upon seeing her like this she leveled her gaze to Weiss. The smaller woman, after shrugging slightly in response, simply pulled out her scroll, opening the device to see how many files her father was still waiting on her to review.

Not knowing what to do as both Blake and Weiss were engrossed in their respective readings, she puffed her cheeks and released it in a long sigh, tapping her knees restlessly as she had nothing to occupy herself. Deciding the room was far too silent for her taste, she started whistling softly, not too loud but enough to be heard, a familiar tune that made both golden and pale blue eyes look up from their readings, for an instant startled as they recognised the song before smiling slightly.

Lucky’s song. She had learned it long ago, but mostly she had ever whistled it when she was on her own, when a conversation was impossible to be held.

Slouching a bit more in her chair as the two others returned to their occupations, she kept whistling for them, a peaceful calm falling on them and in the room, making the clicking of the opening bathroom door smoothly going unnoticed as Ruby came back in the room sometime later. As Yang smiled at her briefly to acknowledge her presence, noticing how the dark red sweater seemed oversized on her shoulders and that Ruby had chosen sweatpants over a skirt or jeans, she returned to her previous position, reclining her head back and finishing the tune softly.

Ruby silently took a seat on the edge of the bed, listening to the tune with a forlorn expression, seemingly recognising the song, too.

“I’m sorry,” her sister softly let out when the last of her whistling died down, earning the three’s attention. “I was rude, and I’m sorry. But I don’t need help for everything, you know?”

Smiling kindly to Ruby, she still noticed in the corner of her eyes how Blake and Weiss had raised their heads, listening, and she reached out to lightly poke her sister’s knee.

“Hey, it’s okay,” she said, smiling again when Ruby raised a tired eye to her. “You know I always want to help everyone.”

That earned a dark eyebrow to arch as Ruby snorted quietly, doubtful.

“Are you telling me you want to help Blake get dressed, too?”

“No, but I always want to help her when she takes off her clothes, though.”

As Ruby rolled her eyes, she smiled when she felt the light kick in her shin coming from her wife, her smile inching larger as she did, but she sobered up as she regarded her sister with a serious expression, poking her knee again.

“You know I just want to take care of you, but if I’m too much, just tell me, okay?”

She waited for Ruby to look up at her again, offering a kind smile in return as her sister nodded slightly after a second.

“I just want my baby sister to be okay,” she added without thinking.

When Ruby visibly winced at her words, she realised what she had said and before she could backpedal, her sister’s expression darkened, turning her head so her bangs could hide her features.

“I’m not a baby anymore,” Ruby softly said, wistful. “I’m older than you, now.”

“Which makes me think,” Weiss quietly chirped in, earning both the sisters’ attention. “How old are you, now? It’s your birthday, soon…”

Trailing off when Ruby’s expression blanked, blinking slowly, the smaller woman was about to brush off her question when the leader furrowed her brows, her eye darting to the side in thought.

“I was about to be twenty-two when I went to her realm,” Ruby mused quietly. “So now I’m…” Visibly counting on her fingers, the leader touched the tip of every finger on one hand, then tapped her thumb again and hesitated over her index, blinking. “It’s hard to say since the difference in time is that large, but as I’m twenty-eight, I guess I’ll be twenty-nine soon.”

A sudden silence filled the space of the room as Ruby’s opened hand slowly closed on her lap, her silver eye darkening as her shoulders slouched a bit, but Yang promptly broke the silence and pulled her sister from her rapidly morose thoughts, snapping her fingers somewhat loudly with a disappointed cluck of her tongue.

“Aw shoot, we missed your quarter of century birthday!” She said with a pout, before straightening her back and beaming at her sister, never minding how Ruby was staring at her with an empty expression. “Well, we’ll make it up to you for your coming birthday! What do you say?”

Considering her for a moment longer, her sister barely shrugged, darting her eye away as it was clear that celebrating her birthday was the last thing on her mind. Before they could add anything else, the door of the room opened, and a nurse entered carrying a platter, one that was filled with several small plastic cups filled with different pills, and they all glanced at the mural clock, hung just above the door, only to realise what the nurse’s presence meant: it was Ruby’s medication time.

And so, with a deep, tired sigh, the leader moved about the bed as the nurse smiled at her with a soft, kind smile.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but you know what time it is, Miss Rose,” the nurse said, flashing another charming smile.

Another deep, forlorn sigh answered his words, and the nurse chuckled as he sat the platter on the table, lifting a few cups to take his clipboard on the bottom of it.

“I know, but it’s nearly over,” he said cheerfully, straightening his back. “You are getting better faster than we expected. And soon, you won’t need to take all those!”

Even with his encouraging words, a scowl still appeared on Ruby’s face as she stared hardly at the platter, her lips pinched in a thin line, and the nurse visibly changed tactic as he was paging Ruby’s file that he took from the plastic box at the foot of the bed.

“I see you were well enough to get dressed, today,” he cheered again, scribbling a few things on the pages. “You even got your headphones! This place must feel a bit less like a prison now. Although,” he added, taking a moment to glance back at the three other women in the room, again with a charming smile. “With all the visitors, I think it feels much like home, no?”

If she had been single, _maybe_ she would have responded to the charming smile with a bit of flirting. The man was attractive and he knew it, but was somewhat humble about it instead of bolstering it. He was also kind enough to try and have a conversation with Ruby, encouraging her always, and understood not to push when he was met with resistance.

But by the way his soft brown eyes lingered on Weiss, Yang figured she wasn’t his type. And the smaller woman, in complete adoration as her pale eyes were trailing on Ruby, completely ignored the nurse as he looked slightly disappointed about it, but still returned to the leader with the same charming smile.

“You have no idea,” Ruby was softly saying in a breath, seemingly oblivious of the nurse’s interest.

Straightening his back as he held the clipboard against his chest, he returned Ruby’s file in its box, before dipping his head to the platter.

“What will it be today, Miss Rose?” He inquired, tilting his head curiously. “Am I to give you your medication, or do you want to-”

“I’ll do it,” Ruby interrupted, already reaching a hand towards one of the cups on the platter as Weiss, suddenly brought back from her dazed staring, hurriedly filled the plastic glass on the nightstand with water from the pitcher there, extending it to Ruby.

“Splendid!” The nurse smiled, visibly proud. “Remember, you have to start-”

“With the vitamins, I know,” the leader finished in a sigh, eyeing the big, bright orange pill she was holding between her fingers. “It’s just… I always feel super dizzy after taking all of them. And sleepy.”

“It doesn’t surprise me,” the nurse grimaced sympathetically. “Some of the pills counter the side effects of others, and vice-versa. Unfortunately, you need them, for the moment. But as I said, soon, you won’t need to take this much.”

As Ruby’s silver eye drifted from the pill to glance across the room towards her sister, Yang smiled warmly when their eyes locked, giving an encouraging nod, and it seemed to give the leader the motivation she needed to swallow the pill, washing it down with water from the glass she took from Weiss’ hand.

“Good. Then, the ones for your kidneys,” the nurse smiled, always patient. “Do you remember which ones?”

It was a slow process, but Ruby finally managed to take all her medication, sinking in her pillows with a weary sigh as she was already rubbing the space between her eyebrows while the nurse gathered the cups and took the platter under his arm, smiling at the leader once again.

“Fantastic,” he bowed his head elegantly to Ruby, who responded with a half-hearted military salute that made him chuckle quietly. “Then I will see you tomorrow, Miss Rose. Oh, and don’t forget-”

“Don’t forget about the pills I’ll need to take with dinner,” Ruby was grumbling, her features scrunching up as she closed her eye. “I know.”

Flashing one last smile, he dipped his head before making his way out the door, giving one last look of longing towards Weiss, who once again was spectacularly ignoring him as he passed beside the smaller woman.

“Wrong tree,” she chuckled under her breath as soon as the door closed behind him, Blake instantly turning her head towards her questioningly, seemingly the only witness of her comment.

“How are you feeling?” Weiss had already pulled her chair closer to the bed, looking up at the leader with light concern on her face.

As the days passed and Ruby recovered, she didn’t need the monitors now, and so they couldn’t check the leader’s heartrate to see if she was lying or in distress. But what came next was so honest that the use of a monitor would have been completely overlooked.

“Terrible.”

Instantly, a sympathetic grimace appeared on Weiss’ features, one of the smaller woman’s pale hands darting up and over the bed to lightly, almost shyly, wrap a finger around the leader’s pinky. It seemed to make Ruby pause then, her silver eye lowering to the soft touch, before turning to the obviously enamored expression Weiss regarded her partner with.

Yang would have rolled her eyes at the sight if she wasn’t stopped by Ruby’s expression drastically softening, and even a soft smile ghosted over her lips as she noticed the discreet shift of her sister’s hand, allowing Weiss’ fingers a bit more across her hand.

“But… I’ve been worse.”

 

****

 

It took a couple more days for the doctor to allow an early release, trusting the three other Huntresses that had been short of guarding their leader to take care of his charge. Yang was the one who discussed pills and recovery with the doctor while Weiss paid for everything without even batting an eyelash. Blake was the one to fetch the car when Ruby was finally cleared and, the four of them together, they set foot out of the hospital.

Even if she had watched from the window for the past week, Ruby was still taken aback as soon as the automated doors closed behind them in a quiet whoosh, and, with Yang and Blake framing her and slightly carrying her weight from her elbows, Ruby was left to marvel for a moment.

She stopped dead in her tracks not even after the second step outside, making the three other women stop too as they looked back at her questioningly, but she barely noticed. She barely noticed, because she could feel the rays of the setting sun on her skin, warming her for the first time in years. Feel the soft breeze tousle her hair, that Weiss had tied loosely behind her neck, feeling it fresh and cool against her face and hands.

Then came the sounds. The rustling of the wind in the leaves from the nearby trees, of cars passing on the street, of the many nearby conversations of employees and visitors and patients of the hospital alike as they were settled either on benches or simply stood, in a wide arch around the front doors of the building.

Everything looked so bright suddenly, blinding almost as she had to close her eye for a moment. Her breath caught in her throat when, near, a sudden bark of laughter sounded too close, too loudly in her ears, the smells of smoke from the cigarettes in the hands of the talking employees flooding her nose, along with the smell of nauseating fumes that escaped passing cars.

Suddenly the wonder of discovering everything again turned to nightmare as the only thing she wanted was to crawl back in the silence of the powder-blue room and glue her headphones to her ears. Even Blake and Yang’s touches, although it was there simply to support her, was too much for the moment.

“Ruby?” A voice, soft and concern coloring it, sounded clearly even through the chaos.

Opening her eye with a gasp, she was greeted by a sight she was sure came directly from a divine source.

Clear, sky blue eyes focused on her, so blue as the sun illuminated them, as Weiss’ alabaster hair was glowing in the sun in some kind of halo around her head. She blinked, noticing that everything around was still a bit blinding, but she decided she didn’t mind as the smaller woman stepped closer, her features contorting slightly.

Oh, how she didn’t want that. Weiss’ expression could be so grave, so serious and unhappy whenever her pale eyes stared at her. All she wanted was for this expression to go, to leave the smaller woman’s face this instant. All she wanted was to see her smiling, see her happy again.

So, she swallowed the lump in her throat and, though her voice was shaky and her lips were trembling, she managed a smile as best she could.

“I’m fine,” she finally croaked out.

Instead of clearing and lighting, Weiss’ blue eyes only darkened as the smaller woman served her with a warning glare, her thin lips pursing in an unhappy line, telling her that Weiss didn’t believe her lie one bit. So, she decided to settle with the truth instead.

“I’m a bit overwhelmed, but it’ll pass.”

This time, realisation dawned on Weiss’ expression as her pale eyes quickly glanced around, finding all those things that felt wrong to her in an instant and, on her elbows, the grip holding her up loosened slightly.

“Do you need a moment?” Whispered another voice in her ear, her left. Blake.

It was strange, though. It seemed everything was distorted, either too bright or too dim, sounds and smells overwhelming as she felt every bit of breeze on her skin was enough to make the hair of her arms stand on end.

The question still sounded in her ears, echoing in it as if her head was empty, until, finally, the words started slowly to process through her foggy mind.

A moment? _Here_? Just the simple thought was making her sweat as she could feel her heart racing in her chest.

And maybe it showed on her face, because another voice, lower and coming to her right, _Yang_ a small voice whispered in the back of her mind, murmured softly, incomprehensibly something comforting. And though she did not make out the words, its effects worked still, and soon she was able to start walking again, being slowly guided to the waiting car, the one with, as she got closer, she could see there was a dog waiting inside.

She noticed Weiss gesturing something and the dog scooted over, leaving enough place for her to slouch numbly on the backseat, barely noticing the slightly cold leather of it against her hands. The door closed without her knowing, and she barely had the time to look over, some part of her overloaded mind recognising the mismatched pair of eyes staring at her but unable to put a name on them for the moment, when the door on the other side opened, and Weiss took a seat there, pushing the dog between them.

Soon, she could feel the vibration of the car as it started, and she registered in some working part of her mind that it was Blake driving, while Yang was turned in her seat to look at her, worry filling her eyes as they shone bright, so bright…

Pawing the side of the door, she found the button and pushed on it with maybe a bit more force than necessary, the window rolling down at a steady pace even if she was practically smashing the button down. Soon enough, a gust of cool air ruffled her hair, fresh against her feverish skin but all the more soothing as she closed her eye, greedily swallowing every gulp of air she could as it roared in her ears.

The sound of it rushing in her ears soon drowned any other noise from the car, the sound of worried voices, of the radio playing quietly, of the car, of the dog’s quiet whines only to be traded by this loud, constant roaring in her ears, and oddly enough she found it comforting. Almost like she would blast her music in her headphones, enough to not hear anything else in the background.

With it, the fog blurring her mind started to clear, and she found that breathing was easier, that the blinding in her eye was settling to something normal as the trees and cars passed in a blink. As her mind calmed, she started hearing the voices, barely audible under the incessant assault of the wind in her ears, from the cabin of the car.

“Maybe we should have waited…” Someone said, and judging by the sound of the voice, she figured it was Blake.

“But she said she wanted to come home!” Another voice, warmer and slightly deeper, sounded. Yang.

“Do you think we should turn back?” High-pitched, worried and stressed. Weiss.

“Can I have some silence, please?”

Her voice, tired and a bit raspy, sounded like thunder in the small cabin as the three others fell silent, and she could feel their stare on her in various degrees of concern. So, she decided to explain a bit.

“I’m not used to… all this,” Ruby continued, vaguely gesturing outside then at her team. “I just need a bit of time to adjust. And silence. There wasn’t much noise, there…”

As, finally, silence fell in the cabin of the car, the roaring of the wind in her ears diminished as the car slowed down, and instead on continuing on the road, Blake took a right, making the car roll on a nearby unseen dirt road that climbed higher the hill there and deeper into the woods. Neither Yang nor Weiss commented, however, as they apparently knew where Blake was leading them.

It took maybe fifteen minutes before the car stopped climbing and finally made it to the top of the hill, and Blake stopped the car then, taking a moment it seemed before moving to get out. Weiss and Yang followed without a word, the smaller woman pulling the dog outside as she did, and the three of them gathered on Ruby’s side of the car, seemingly waiting for her.

Looking up at them, she could see their soft smiles and, after a moment, Blake was the one to reach a hand to her, offering it as it hung in the air. After a second of consideration, she finally obliged, opening the door and taking Blake’s offered hand to stand.

Slowly, the four of them made their way towards a lone bench several paces away, and it wasn’t until she was standing beside it that she understood why it was there, even though it seemed out of place.

They were standing on top of a cliff, and the city of Mistral was laid out before her very eyes, shining in the last hour of the setting sun, covering in gold everything it touched. She could see, down below, how the city was still buzzing with life, but as they were away the sound of it was muted, instead traded by the quiet breeze making the leaves overhead rustling.

The smells, too, had changed, her nose filling with clearer air with the nearby tree sap and earth and the distinctive fresh smell that hung in the breeze, telling of the slowly coming winter.

She found herself sitting on the bench with no idea _when_ she did, and the rest of the team was staying silent as the four of them watched over the golden city, listening to the sound of the breeze in the trees.

“The golden hour,” Blake softly let out, her voice quiet. “It’s my favorite time of day. It makes for incredible pictures.”

As she heard the quiet hum of approval of both Weiss and Yang, Ruby kept her attention on the city, taking it all in as a silence settled over them, the rest of the team willingly giving her all the time she needed here.

It was just… so strange to her, to feel how _alive_ her surroundings was. Back in the hospital room, she was a witness to all this life, a simple passerby as she was sheltered in the building, but now… now it felt… real.

“There weren’t any noises, in her realm,” Ruby quietly started, her gaze still on the vast city under them even though she felt the others’ stare. “There was no wind. No sun. It was always so dark and still, lighted only by the crystals and the moon. I… I never thought I’d get the chance to feel the sun’s warmth on my skin again…”

She extended a hand to the city, her hand trembling as she could almost feel the edges of it under her fingertips, a strange emptiness filling her mind and body as her breath caught in her throat, a bitter smile pulling her lips.

“It all seems so real…”

Suddenly, she wanted to laugh. Somehow, she knew that the past weeks had simply been some kind of grand farce at her expense, knowing that Salem was watching and enjoying the way she was left believing she was truly home. It wouldn’t be the first time she had been so naïve.

Suddenly standing, she was barely aware that the other three were still very attentive, and when she stepped closer to the ledge, she saw Yang stand too, trailing behind her. Stopping merely a pace from the drop, she let her eyes lower to the space in front of her, already knowing the fall would be fatal if she ever chose to cross the distance.

“If I jump,” she said, and the reactions behind her was instant as Yang closed the distance behind her and both Blake and Weiss jumped to their feet. “Will I wake up in your realm again?”

Before she even had the forethought of moving further, the heavy weight of Yang’s hand on her shoulder prevented it, but her sister neither pulled nor pushed. It was a simple reminder, the warmth seeping through her shirt.

At the touch, she felt even more lost than a couple of seconds ago.

How many times had she fallen for these little things? She had always tried to see the little details, to find the flaws in Salem’s delusions in them, somehow hoping she would see them before the witch decided to take her back, but…

Reality was in her realm. That was a dreadful certainty she had no choice but to understand over time, all of it the hard way.

“I’m not really here, am I?” Ruby let out, chocking up as she did.

The idea of stepping over seemed even more appealing now, to make this deception stop before she would be too invested in it, before she believed in it too much. Truly, she didn’t understand why she ever thought she could be back home, there was no way she was really back-

A hand closing around hers caught her attention before it could spiral into chaos, and she blearily blinked, focusing on the person that had moved closer, taking a single step in front of her. Not completely, not blocking her, but just enough to stop her if she ever wanted to take that step off the ledge.

It was Blake. Blake, who tried a small, and visibly trembling, smile, along with a soft squeeze of her hand.

“If you are sure you’re not here, how about we just enjoy being together, while it lasts? How about we go home?”

Rising her eyes to meet her stare, Ruby was met with tranquil strength and hope in Blake’s golden eyes, and as she considered her, she figured… She figured it was true.

How she wanted to believe she was back home, with her team.

And so, she decided to let herself be naïve, and nodded at Blake’s words, feeling Yang’s hand on her shoulder giving a soft, reassuring squeeze.

“Yeah,” she finally breathed. “Yeah, let’s go home.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a hundred years AGAIN hahahaha
> 
> One day I'll get the hang of it. It's just that I'm still kinda in a massive writer's block, so, heh. Nothing's really progressing.  
> But I take my time, and eventually, it's done, so here it is!  
> I hope you like it!

The car stopped slowly in front of the house, and even when the engine stopped nobody moved in the car, waiting with bated breath on Ruby as the leader was staring at the house, the awe she had showed earlier apparently gone as her eye glassily went over the place she had dreamed of for years, now.

When Ruby moved to open the door, they all did as one, following every step at their leader’s pace, allowing all the time Ruby needed before she could proceed. So, they stood next to the car in silence, waiting on Ruby.

The next thing they knew, Ruby was taking off her shoes, holding them in her hands, before carefully, almost fearing the ground would give under her feet, her bare feet touched the grass of the front yard.

After a couple of paces on the grass, standing unmoving in the middle of the front yard, Ruby’s stiff shoulders relaxed visibly as the leader threw her head back, a smile pulling her lips as she was wiggling her toes in the grass.

“Oh,” the leader let out in a breathless gasp. “Oh I miss this so much…”

Taking in a deep breath, smelling the scent of grass and earth and trees in the air, Ruby suddenly crossed the distance between where she stood and the front door, Yang jumping into motion and quickly unlocking the door for her before stepping aside, letting her enter first.

The brunette stopped in the doorway, giving a slow sweep of the dining space, kitchen and living room, the open space brightly lit by the setting sun.

“Nothing’s changed,” the leader whispered, sounding almost surprised.

“We tried to keep everything as it was,” Yang quietly commented. “You know… before you disappeared.”

“You make it sound like I just vanished from existence,” Ruby said, her voice strangely cold as she barely glanced at her sister. “I was there the entire time. I remember everything.”

As Yang blinked, taken aback by the response, the leader silently entered, her bare feet padding quietly against the floorboard until she stopped abruptly, apparently very interested about something on the table. Reaching a hand over after dropping her shoes to the ground, Ruby let her fingers run over a darkened spot on the wooden table, feeling it with the tips.

“Not everything is the same,” the leader reported quietly. “That’s new.”

“That was Weiss,” Blake stepped forward to answer the unasked question. “She didn’t know you have to put something under the pan before putting it on the table.”

The offended scoff, instantly followed by a slap on the faunus’ arm, only confirmed Blake’s words.

“Why did you have to sell me out like that? Ruby hasn’t even been in the house for two minutes!”

It managed to make the leader snort as the faunus had to hide her smile while Weiss pouted a bit, but they slowly moved on to the living room, where Ruby spent a good minute staring at the TV, then the books, until her gaze drifted to the shelf where Lucky’s hat and guns sat.

Visibly flinching at the sight, Ruby spun sharply on her heels, staring at the floor hardly before shaking her head, and leaving her other shoe on the ground there, went to the hallway, making her way to the garage.

Sharing a glance with a somber expression, the three other women followed just as the door leading to the garage flew open, Ruby practically kicking it open, before stopping right there, glancing around confusedly.

“Wasn’t this supposed to be a gym?”

“A gym?” Yang parroted, tilting her head to the side.

“We, uh, didn’t really have the time to renovate,” Blake answered instead.

Humming quietly, the leader gave a short nod before leaving the garage, backtracking to the staircase leading upstairs, and Ruby’s tour went on until they stopped in the storage room, where the leader wanted to have her workshop. In their absence, Blake and Weiss had stored Crescent Rose here, the rusted and battered weapon leaned against the far wall, right beside the dusty table where Myrtenaster laid, its broken blade shining in the golden rays of the sun filtering through the small window.

Still, the sight caught Ruby’s attention right away as the leader took a careful step inside, her single eye glued to the rapier.

“When did that happen?” The brunette murmured, her voice coming out in a mix of horror and fear.

Hesitating before reaching a hand to it, Ruby let her fingers hover over the hilt, as if judging she wasn’t worthy to even touch it.

“I nearly fell off the ledge when I tried to keep up with you,” Weiss let out, her voice matching Ruby’s. “If Blake hadn’t been there when Myrtenaster snapped…”

“Oh…”

Slowly nodding, Ruby’s silver eye was still on the broken blade, its jagged edge shining in the same way the leader’s iris was.

“Okay.”

Then, Ruby turned on her heels, continuing the tour of a house she once knew, and even though not much had changed, it felt as if everything was new as the leader discovered everything again.

 

****

It was, for the lack of a better word, weird.

Strange. Alien.

Of course, it had been a while since the last time the witch had thrown her into a well-crafted dream, a simple delusion. Yet, nothing ‘simple’ felt attached to it.

Still, as she sat in a chair at the table, watching as Blake, Weiss and Yang started the strangely well-coordinated ballet that was dinner, she couldn’t help but feel like everything was out of place.

No, not quite. Not ‘everything’. It was her.

 _She_ felt out of place.

Yang and Weiss worked well together, the blonde focusing on the main dish while the smaller woman took care of everything around it, although it was mainly cutting the vegetables. Blake provided support when either Weiss or Yang needed a hand, while being the designated DJ as she kept the volume low enough so they could still talk, and eventually the faunus sat plates on the table, along with utensils.

As she sat on one end of the table, she realised as Yang was distributing the dishes to the seats, that Blake sat on the other end, and Weiss and Yang sat on either side of the table. And that, not to say that the table was really big though, both their chairs had been pulled closer to Blake’s end of the table, probably just a habit taken over time.

A hand on her shoulder pulled her from her observations as a plate was set in front of her, a smaller portion than even Weiss had in it.

Salmon in a white, dill sauce, set on a bed of rice along with steamed veggies.

As she looked up at Yang, her sister smiled warmly, squeezing her shoulder gently before the blonde took her chair, and her gaze fell back on her plate just as the smell wafting from it hit her nose.

It was like dying of thirst in the desert, and suddenly stumbling on an oasis.

She felt her mouth water immediately. Gods, it smelled so much better than all the food she had during her stay at the hospital. _Combined_.

Forgetting herself for a moment, she directly went to take a piece of the salmon with her fingers, ripping a piece of it as it gave in without resistance, and even though it burned her fingers, she still dropped it in her mouth, closing her eye as the sauce hit her tongue and never minding the burn on it.

Chewing slowly as she sat back in her chair, she let out a trembling breath, feeling on the verge of tears as she couldn’t help the quiet hum that slipped out.

“Ruby?”

Her eye snapping open, she was met with three pair of concerned stare, and she quickly swallowed, nearly chocking as she did.

“Sorry, it’s just…” She let out a helpless laugh, lowering her eyes to escape their eyes. “It’s just so good and I couldn’t help myself, I mean it’s been so long…”

“Yeah, hospital food isn’t particularly good,” Yang nodded in agreement, a smile on her lips.

“Oh gosh, I remember when I had to eat _that_ during my stay at the hospital,” Weiss grumbled as she scrunched her nose in disdain. “Fortunately, I was drugged and so high that I barely tasted anything. Don’t worry, Ruby,” the smaller woman continued, looking up at her solemnly. “Except when I’m the one cooking, you won’t eat something as bad as hospital food.”

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short like that!” Yang instantly perked up, a touch of hurt in her voice. “You make a kickass pumpkin pie that, honestly, is the best thing ever!”

“I thought you didn’t like pumpkin,” Blake quietly joined in, a discreet smile on her lips as she brought her fork to her mouth.

“That’s why it surprised me so much when I tasted her pie and loved it!”

As Blake stopped chewing, the faunus narrowed her eyes at her wife, observing her for a moment before leaning over to Weiss, lowering her voice to speak barely above a whisper.

“What’s your secret? I’ve been trying to make her like pumpkin because I love it.”

A haughty huff was Weiss’ only response, daintily taking a bite of her salmon.

“I will carry this secret to my deathbed. And only _maybe_ then, I will tell you.”

As Yang laughed while Blake shook her head in mock disappointment, she was left witnessing this scene, a strange emptiness spreading in her chest as, once again, it felt alien.

She felt like an imposter, in a house she once knew, with a family she was once a part of.

It hurt her more than she could ever admit, to see them like this. Sitting so close together, one of them reaching for the other every so often, to see them chatting and laughing lightly, as if… as if…

As if they had moved on. As if her presence was no longer needed.

It left a bitter taste on her tongue as she wondered if it had been the witch’s plan all along. To make her see a world where the people she loved the most forgot about her. A mighty chastisement, for ever thinking she could ever leave her realm.

Finally taking her fork, the next bite tasted like ash in her mouth and she felt her stomach churn as soon as she swallowed, the few she had eaten sitting like rocks in the pit of her stomach.

As she was dimly aware of the conversation the three others were having, she suddenly felt weary, a deep exhaustion seeping into her bones and draining all the earlier excitement from her food. She slowly set her fork down, her food barely touched as she felt numb, and she closed her eye, almost expecting to wake up in her glossy alcove, back in the Hive.

“Are you okay?” Blake’s voice cut through the haze, sounding so close and nearly startling her. “You look a bit pale.”

Hey eye snapping open, she was met with the three others’ stare, concern clear in their eyes as they had stilled upon noticing something was wrong.

She wanted to laugh. Something was definitely wrong, when all she wanted was to disappear instead of enduring their stare longer than that.

“I, uh, I’m fine,” she finally managed, lowering her eyes to her still full plate. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Ruby, if there’s something wrong…” Weiss started, setting her fork down, too.

She didn’t mean to slam her closed fist on the table as hardly as she did, a sudden and uncontrollable burst of anger rending her gritting her teeth painfully at the ridiculousness of Weiss’ words. But the clatter of their plates was enough to make the smaller woman jump a bit, effectively interrupting her as her mouth clacked shut.

“Of _course_ there’s something wrong!” She grounded out, suddenly having enough of this play pretend. “What did you expect? That I would be fine after a single week? After a couple of hours in the house?”

“Then what _is_ wrong?” Blake’s voice cut in again, this time a bit of steel in it as she turned her attention to the faunus, noticing how her feline ears were flat against her scalp. “We only want to help you, Ruby, you know that.”

Staring at the faunus in disbelief, she blinked, her anger fading away with just that, but instead traded with the earlier weariness she had felt, and she sighed deeply, looking away.

She had to get out. For the moment, leaving the room was the only thing she could do.

“Just… Nevermind. Don’t worry about me,” she muttered as she stood, making her way to the hallway as she left her plate barely touched on the table. “I’m not going anywhere, anyway.”

Moving away from the table without another word, she went to the hallway leading to the bedrooms as she left the three other women in stunned silence, and she nearly tripped on Angel, laid down out of sight on Weiss’ side of the table. Stopping in her track, she took the time to silently pat the dog’s head in a silent apology, before continuing to the hallway, and soon enough attained her goal: her bedroom.

Because of course it was hers, now. She had seen through the Seer, how Weiss had gradually traded their bedroom to Blake and Yang’s. Weiss still had her clothes in the walk-in, but it wasn’t Weiss’ room, anymore.

Closing the door behind her, she let her gaze sweep the room, finding it barren of Weiss’ meager possessions. Even the smaller woman’s digital clock, that Weiss hated with her entire being, wasn’t there on the nightstand anymore and was assuredly standing watch in the next bedroom.

Even that felt like a stab in the back.

Slowly crossing the distance to the bed, she sat on the edge of it, sinking in it a bit more than she expected to.

Whatever she had said to Blake earlier, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t pretend, anymore.

Weiss was dead, and she was stuck here because she had tried to escape the witch’s realm. That, was reality.

 _Her_ reality. And as such, _everything_ felt wrong to her.

“Take me back,” she murmured, pressing her hands against her face desperately. “Take me back, I promise I’ll be good.”

When nothing happened, she let out a deep sigh, cursing. If she had learned anything, it was that the witch didn’t forget easily. And could hold a grudge for centuries.

Falling back on the mattress, she instantly sank in it, panic seizing her as she felt pulled in it, trapped on it, and she scrambled to the floor, its firmness and coldness a strangely familiar feel in all this mess.

Familiar was good, she decided as she crawled to a corner of the room, curling up there with her back to the wall, pulling her knees up to her chest and folding her arms between her chest and thighs, a habit she had taken to keep warm at night. Leaning her head against the wall, she looked up, seeing the shattered moon hung in the portion of sky she could see from the window.

It felt wrong, how far it was in the night’s sky. Like it, too, didn’t belong here.

 

****

 

_Waking up with a jolt at the sound of clacking heels that echoed in the hall, her eyes snapped open long before the steps had entered her alcove, and it gave her enough time to maneuver with the heavy chains that held her wrists together for she could kneel, bowing lowly towards the origin of the noise, her forehead nearly touching the deep purple of the glossy ground._

_Finally, one dark shoe entered her peripheral vision, and the whisper of the silken robes was heard along with it. She heard a pleased hum as the steps stopped in front of her._

_“Ah, very good,” Salem said, her voice sounding as sweet as honey. “I see you learn quickly.”_

_“Had to,” she couldn’t help but grumble under her breath, dipping her head lower._

_As the witch had been about to step away, she apparently caught her words, and she stopped her movements, her shoes turning in her direction again._

_“What was that?” The voice of her nightmares sounded, echoing hardly against every wall and she was sure, running the entire length of the Hive._

_A shiver ran down her spine, all her senses on high alert as she knew, she had angered the witch._

A soft knock somewhere made her snap her head up, knocking the back of it against the wall behind her rather loudly as she did.

Which, the person on the other side of the door must have heard.

“Ruby?” Came Weiss’ voice, muffled. “Are you alright? Can I come in?”

Blinking as the flare of pain on the back of her head faded, she glanced around, recognising the dark, square room she was in, and she felt equal parts disappointed and angry to still be here, and not in her alcove. Even waking up chained up would be better than this.

Another knock sounded in the room, just a bit louder, insistent.

“Come in,” she sighed, not really sure why she was indulging.

Instantly the door opened, and without surprise Weiss entered, carrying a plate with her and the smell that wafted from it told her it must have been the rest of her dinner. But instead of coming closer, Weiss stopped dead in her tracks right past the doorway, staring at her with wide eyes.

“What are you doing on the floor?” She asked, worry coloring her voice. “You can sleep on the bed, you know.”

Watching her as Weiss closed the door behind her, waiting for Angel to enter, the smaller woman went to click open the bedside lamp before she sat on the edge of the bed. Cautiously observing Weiss, she huddled closer in her corner, finding it safer to stay there.

“I can’t,” she still offered a response, wondering why she even bothered. Probably because it was Weiss. Her… former partner-girlfriend. Former ex-girlfriend. Whatever.

“Of course you can!” Weiss softly countered, setting the plate on the nightstand before looking up at her. “You’re home, now. You’re safe.”

“It’s not that,” she grounded out, not finding the energy to argue. “It’s… it’s too soft.”

 It made Weiss blink, silent for just a moment.

“Too… soft?”

Wordlessly nodding as she looked away, she noticed Angel, who stood by Weiss’ side like a shadow, the dog’s mismatched eyes staring at her with her head just a bit tilted to the side, curious, as she could see in her peripheral vision the smaller woman discreetly pressing a hand against the mattress, testing its firmness.

“Well, that can be arranged,” Weiss let out after a silence, returning her attention on her. “We can always change it for something firmer, so you can sleep on the bed.”

Keeping her attention on the dog, she merely shrugged in response, noticing the way Weiss’ shoulders drooped a bit as she did, but she paid it no mind. Not really.

“She’s bigger in person,” she mumbled, gesturing vaguely at Angel, who simply tilted her head to the other side.

Following her stare, Weiss nodded, a soft smile pulling her lips as she reached a hand to pet the dog’s head affectionately.

“Yes, well, I guess it came as a surprise to everyone,” the smaller woman chuckled softly. “She was such a little, tiny thing, back then.”

Nodding with a quiet hum of approval, a foggy flash coming to mind of a time when Weiss was laughing heartily when she tried to bathe the puppy, sending dirty water everywhere without a care in the world, she couldn’t help the small smile pulling her lips. Even though it was during the war, it felt like it was such a simpler time. Felt like a lifetime ago, or two.

Her stare flickering to the floor, she couldn’t help but feel guilty at how Weiss had jumped when she had snapped earlier. She had been laughing and smiling moments before her outburst, and now…

“I’m sorry I was rude, earlier,” she muttered, looping her arms around her pulled up knees and squeezing tightly. “I… I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me, Ruby,” Weiss offered a gentle smile after a beat of silence. “You just… surprised me.”

Letting out a non-committal hum, a silence settled in the room as Weiss kept petting the dog’s head until it was a soft clear of throat that broke the stillness of the room.

“I, um, I heated up your plate for you,” the smaller woman quietly reported, touching a finger to the edge of the plate. “You barely ate anything even though you said it tasted so good…”

“I’m not hungry. I’m never hungry, this is just… part of her delusion.”

Opening her mouth only to wordlessly close it, Weiss stared at her, hurt visible in her eyes even though she tried to hide it.

“Wh-Why do you think this isn’t real?” the smaller woman asked softly, patting the spot next to her on the bed. “Can you explain to me?”

“It just is!” She snapped suddenly, bristling. “There’s nothing to explain, because _there’s no way_ I really left! This,” she paused, gesturing at everything around them in a wide arc, “Is only my punishment. Because I tried to defy her.”

“What did you do?”

“Something stupid! That’s what I did! Because I’m stupid when it comes to you!”

Letting out a frustrated sigh through her gritted teeth, she returned her attention outside, noticing that the moon had moved in the sky. It was strange. In Salem’s realm, the moon didn’t move a single inch, no matter how much time passed.

“What do you mean, ‘when it comes to me’?”

For a moment, the idea of ignoring Weiss fluttered in her mind, but when she chanced a glance towards the smaller woman, she could see her stare, filled equal parts of horror and relief.

As if Weiss had forgotten just how much she loved her.

At the time of the war, stuck in the colossal pressure of her position, of being _the_ silver-eyed warrior, it had been _so_ easy for the witch to slip into her mind, seeping into every corner, filling every cracks and holes, making her doubt everything, even herself. Breaking up with Weiss, at the time, had just made sense. Weiss didn’t deserve her like this.

And she had watched Weiss grieve for her, watched her mourn her. Then, watched her find solace in their teammates, Blake and Yang only ever willing to take care of her.

She had been grateful to see them get better, to see them heal together. She had even felt happy for them.

But to see Weiss smile again, see her laugh without hearing it, recognising all those discreet signs of affection that used to be only for her now turned to Blake and even Yang, it had left a bitter taste on her tongue as she had watched them move on from her, sitting at the feet of the witch as her long, pitch black nails threaded in her long locks almost tenderly.

She knew the witch had fed off her pain, of course. The incessant torture of the first years she had been in her realm proved it. But this kind of pain, apparently, was far, far more enjoyable.

Still, she couldn’t help but try and help Weiss when the witch’s attention turned fully on her.

And she knew. She would do it again, in a heartbeat.

So, she finally let out a long, deep breath as she turned to Weiss, still silently waiting for any kind of answer, and she decided to indulge yet again. Because it was Weiss.

And she missed her so, so much.

“Because when I saw her kill you, I… I kind of… snapped.”

Without waiting for an invitation, Weiss moved from her seat on the edge of the bed, instead crossing the distance and silently sat by her side, pulling her knees against her chest in almost the same way Ruby was, her blue eyes focused on her and her only.

The smaller woman was so close, she could feel the warmth emanating from her, and she closed her eyes, resisting the urge of shifting closer to her, starved of Weiss’ warmth, of her feel and scent… but she had to remind herself that it was a simple delusion. Because Weiss was dead.

“When I saw her snuff the life out of you, I… I left the throne room. She was almost mad, because she hadn’t meant to kill you right then and there, but she got carried away, and… Anyway. I don’t really remember what happened, but I found myself outside, with Crescent Rose in hand. I don’t even remember going to take it.”

“I knew she was trying to grow the Grimm’s numbers, so she could come back to Remnant with an even bigger army. And I knew that the best way to piss her off was to stall this growing army. So I went to the graveyard, with the intention of killing all the Grimm I could see.”

Letting out a bitter scoff, she shook her head, lowering her eye to her knees.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” she continued in a murmur, her voice kept low but Weiss was still listening intently. “I could barely lift my weapon, and even when I used all my strength, it only managed to dent their armor. It was pitiful. I was… crying and screaming, not even able to kill a single Grimm even when they couldn’t fight back.”

“Because you were marked untouchable,” the smaller woman remembered, worry plain in her face.

Nodding with a sigh, she let a silence settle over them as she remembered how hopeless she had felt at that moment, after putting all the effort into landing a hit on one of the weakest-looking Beowolf only for it to barely crack a single eye open to stare at her, seemingly unbothered by her action.

“Then… what happened?” Weiss pulled her from her thoughts, ever so softly.

Shrugging, she shifted in her corner, extending a leg to poke Angel’s drooping ear with her toe as the dog was laying down in front of them.

“I was about to give up, but then… The Grimm started to die, gunfire coming from everywhere at once. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what happened.”

“Who was it?” Weiss couldn’t help but press, unable to refrain her curiosity.

“Emerald.”

It made the smaller woman pause as she stared at her, her eyes widening in disbelief.

“‘I can create illusions and I fight dirty’ Emerald? The one that is always with Mercury? Working with Cinder? And working with Salem, by alliance?”

“Do you know another Emerald that has access to her realm?” She snapped back.

“Well I’m sorry, but she works with the bad guys! Why would she help you?”

“Emerald helped me only as a means to an end,” she grumbled. “Because I’m the only one who can stop _her_.”

“‘Her’? You mean Salem?”

Giving a short nod of confirmation, remembering how methodically Emerald killed everything in her path with deadly precision, mowing through most of the smaller Grimm and killing even the bigger ones easily. But it hadn’t been a fair fight, as both of them had been marked untouchable.

“But why would she want Salem dead? Or at least, stopped? Isn’t she working with her?”

“Apparently Emerald still has something she wants to protect on Remnant, or she still has a bit of compassion for the rest of humankind in mind,” she retorted with another shrug. “Anyway, she doesn’t want the world to end. So she tried to help me escape before she did herself, but since I couldn’t take the portals, it was… it was bound to fail. I mean, only the Grimm can survive to go through the pools between realms.”

“Wait, you… You tried leaving her realm through the pool of… slime?”

“‘Tried’ being the key word,” she couldn’t help but mutter, moving to loop her arms around her knees and lean her forehead against her kneecaps. “Now I’m just… talking to another version of you.”

“But Ruby, it worked!” Weiss tried after a short pause, shifting just a bit closer. “The doctor said there were traces of slime in your bloodwork-”

“No, it’s impossible to survive the pools, Weiss, I’m not a Grimm. Only them can survive it.”

“But you can use your Semblance and Aura!” The smaller woman insisted before her voice lowered, taking a shy note to it. “We… we connected, like we used to.”

“It doesn’t mean anything!” She barked back, bristling. “She can do whatever she wants with these illusions; everything I’ve seen, everything I’ve felt, she can use that against me, to make me believe. And then she takes it all back, and I wake up in my alcove, all alone again.”

“Ruby, I promise, you won’t-”

“Do you know how many times you promised I wouldn’t wake up back there?” she finally exploded, glaring hardly at the smaller woman. “Do you know how many times I believed you?”

She couldn’t help the tears gathering and blurring her sight as she chocked on the last words, wondering why she even bothered anymore. She knew she would never leave her realm. She couldn’t. There was no way.

“Sometimes I could spend years in an illusion before she decided to bring me back,” she continued, gasping for breath as the lump in her throat kept growing. “But in her realm, only a handful of seconds had passed. Do you know how many times she tricked me like that? So no, sorry. I’m not falling for it this time.”

“But-”

“No! Enough!”

Even though her voice was weak and wavering, not even a shout, Weiss clacked her mouth shut before wordlessly nodding, and as the smaller woman wetted her lips to say something, she shook her head, huddling in her corner.

“Just… leave.”

Obediently, Weiss stood from her seat as she buried her face in her arms, trying to hide as best she could. As her sniffles were the only thing breaking the silence, Weiss soundlessly gestured for Angel to follow before making her way to the door, and as her hand was on the doorknob, the smaller woman looked over her shoulder, visibly hesitating.

“Ruby?”

Letting out a sigh as she sniffed again without an ounce of grace, she still looked up.

“What?”

“Will you eat a bit at least?”

As she was about to argue, Weiss spoke before she could.

“Do it for me?”

It was ridiculous how well it worked. Even though she knew this person wasn’t real, that the whole situation was just a grand trick at her expense, she couldn’t say no to those eyes, Weiss’ pale-blue silently pleading.

And so, she did what she always did. Indulging. Giving in.

“Fine, whatever.”

The ghost of a smile appeared on Weiss’ pale lips as she nodded slightly.

“Good enough,” she heard the smaller woman mumble under her breath. “Thank you, Ruby.”

And just like that, Weiss left the room, the door clicking shut quietly behind her.

Just like that, she found herself alone, on the cold, hard floor of the square room, the feeling not too different from her alcove, back in the Hive.

 

****

 

As soon as Weiss came back into the kitchen area, where Yang and Blake had been waiting anxiously, they both perked up, the blonde opening her mouth to speak but the smaller woman didn’t give her the time as she went straight to her, almost crashing into her and pressing her face in Yang’s chest, her arms held rigidly by her sides.

Instantly, she reached a hand to gently rub Weiss’ back just as Yang wrapped her arms around the smaller woman in a comforting hold.

“Didn’t go well?” The faunus accurately guessed, but Weiss’ drooping shoulders answered her.

“Well, I mean it was expected, right?” Yang was gently trying to reassure them, the crease between her eyebrows a telling sign of how worried she was. “We couldn’t expect her to be fine right off the bat, I mean, after what happened at the cliff…”

“Let’s just take it slow,” she proposed, earning lilac and pale-blue eyes. “Really slow. Surely if she gets used to us…”

“But she was!” Weiss complained, somewhere against Yang’s chest. “When she was in the hospital, we were always with her!”

“I know, but-”

“She needs a new bed,” the smaller woman interrupted, pulling away from Yang and visibly reluctant to do so. “She says the one already in the room is too soft.”

“Too soft?” The blonde said again, just to make sure.

“Yes. She’s sleeping on the floor, huddled in a corner.”

A heavy silence settled over them as they shared a look, and as one they moved to the table, taking a seat.

“Let’s find her a mattress that’ll work for her tomorrow,” Yang declared as soon as they were sat, then turned to Weiss. “Don’t be afraid to go cheaper.”

“Cheaper?” The smaller woman crinkled her nose, reluctant.

“Cheaper means harder!” The blonde insisted. “Only rich people sleep on clouds!”

“Excuse-me?”

“Look, I’ve never had a better bed until we let you take care of the bedding. Just saying!”

“Maybe she’ll want to stay home, though,” Blake gently remarked, earning the attention of the other two. “I’m sure she’s not ready to go shopping anytime soon.”

Weiss and Yang glanced at each other wordlessly before they nodded.

“I’ll stay with her if she doesn’t want to go along,” she proposed, taking advantage of the silence. “And if it’s alright with you, I think we should wait before informing your father that Ruby’s back,” she added, turning to her wife as she reached a hand to her.

The blonde met her halfway, her fingers always so warm against her skin as Yang ran a thumb over her knuckles.

“I agree,” the blonde sighed after a short, thoughtful pause. “I don’t… We’ll wait until Ruby wants to. When she’s ready, at her own pace.”

Offering a small smile to her wife as she squeezed her hand tenderly, she could see Weiss leaning slightly over into Yang’s side, and could guess more than she could see the smaller woman set a reassuring hand on the blonde’s thigh, offering comfort too.

“Well,” her wife said after a moment of silence. “We have Ruby back, now. And we’ll get through this like we always did; together. Right?”

Both Blake and Weiss nodded in sync, making Yang smile softly.

“Take it slow,” the smaller woman said, repeating Blake’s words and turning her pale eyes to her. “One day at a time.”

 

****

 

Without surprise, Ruby had refused to leave the room the next day, and so Weiss and Yang dutifully went to find the right mattress for Ruby. Weiss even reluctantly left Angel at home, saying that she had to start going places without her dog if she ever wanted to go hunting again, although Blake wasn’t really worried. With Yang with her, she knew Weiss would be fine, and if not, they both knew Blake was always just a call away.

So, she was left with Angel at the large window in the kitchen, watching Weiss and Yang climb in the car as she held her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Even now, she felt a slight twinge of discomfort when she saw them go, not completely over her anxiety.

But she just had to remind herself that they would come back. She knew they always would.

When the car left her sight, she took a deep breath, only now noticing that Angel was silently sitting right beside her and her, too, was watching outside, a silent sigh shaking her frame. Blake could count on one hand the number of times Weiss went somewhere without Angel, and every time, the dog seemed sad to be left behind.

Feeling a wave of sympathy, she reached a hand to lightly pat the dog’s head, feeling a strange wave of affection as she did. After all, Angel had always tried to take care of Weiss as best she could.

She should have known better. Ever since Weiss had Angel, it had happened maybe once or twice that she had actually petted the dog. And as it always did, Angel went crazy.

Snapping her head up to stare at her with eyes full of stars, Angel’s tail started wagging at a hundred miles a second, almost vibrating in happiness as the dog seemed about ready to burst of joy.

But this time, maybe the dog remembered all of Weiss’ scolding about jumping on Blake, because Angel only, and almost timidly, reached her head and licked her hand, once.

Crinkling her nose, she wiped her hand on her jeans, but patted the dog’s head again, glad that Angel was behaving.

Then, with the dog following her like a shadow, she went to Ruby’s room and, after taking a breath, knocked three times.

“Ruby? Can I come in?”

She could hear with her sharp hearing just a bit of rustling, and she must have woken her up, because it took a moment before she heard a noise, a muffled answer, but it sounded positive and so she opened the door.

The room was dark as the blinds were shut, but her eyes could easily see, spotting Ruby still against the corner, curled up in a ball there. For a short moment, she wondered if Ruby had seen how Weiss had isolated herself much like the leader was doing. But she was glad Ruby was willing to let them in, as opposed to the smaller woman at the time.

“Hi,” she gently greeted with a smile, then her eyes went to the nightstand, and she widened them, pleasantly surprised. “You ate breakfast! Was it good?”

A flash of silver went to her, but she could see Ruby nodding, tightening the hold around her pulled up knees.

“It has been awhile since I had pancakes. And I really miss bananas. And strawberries. And everything, really.”

Nodding without knowing what to say, she let her eyes wander in the room, noticing that Ruby had at least pulled the covers from the bed and was presently wrapped in it, keeping herself warm.

“Weiss and Yang left to get you a good mattress,” she reported, noticing how Ruby’s attention came back to her. “And, um… I’m still not really used being alone, so can I keep you company?”

The brunette stared at her silently, apparently mulling it over.

“I promise I’ll be quiet,” she affirmed, pointing to the hallway. “I have a good book that’s waiting to be read. But I’ll need a little more light, if that’s alright with you?”

After a long moment, Ruby finally shrugged before nodding, her only eye following Blake across the room as she opened the blinds, then left the room to fetch her book. When she came back, she realised that Angel hadn’t followed her, but instead went to lie down beside Ruby, who was staring at the dog curiously. Soundlessly, she brought the chair in the room closer to the window, and without a word sat there, opening the book on her lap as she got comfortable.

Sometimes she could feel Ruby staring, other times she glanced over from her book to see that Ruby was relaxing in her corner, until the leader wormed an arm out of her cocoon of blanket to lightly, slowly pet Angel, who didn’t move a muscle except for her tail wagging a bit.

She wondered how Ruby was feeling. If the room, left with the door open and with her inside, was still the brunette’s haven, or if she had just made everything worst for her. But she felt like straight out asking how Ruby was feeling might be a bit… too forward.

At some point, she could feel the brunette’s stare on her for a while now, and casually she raised her head to meet the silver gaze, and when Ruby didn’t look away, she offered a gentle smile.

When Ruby shyly returned it, she couldn’t believe how glad she felt for it. After the cliff, then Ruby’s outburst during diner last night, and with the way Weiss had come back from Ruby’s room… She had feared the worst.

Defining what ‘the worst’ was, however, proved to be outside of her capabilities for the moment.

“I kinda missed this,” Ruby mumbled after a moment, glancing away as she did.

Blinking, Blake tilted her head a bit curiously.

“Missed what?”

“Spending time with you,” the leader answered quietly, shrugging a single shoulder. “It’s just… I don’t have to talk when I’m with you. We can just… hang out, without interacting. Weiss and Yang tend to talk a _lot_.”

Chuckling alongside Ruby, unable to deny her words, until a sudden thought struck her as she quickly slipped a piece of paper to save her page, then stood from her chair, leaving her book there and made her way to the walk-in, opening Ruby’s side as she peered inside.

A soft rustling noise, then quiet padding told her that Ruby had followed her, apparently curious to see what she was searching for, and as she rose to the tip of her toes to better see on the shelves, she answered Ruby’s unasked question.

“We stored your comics in here, but I don’t remember where…” Blake muttered, reaching an arm to pat farther up the shelf, before moving to the other side when her hand met nothing but air. “I figured you’d want them, right?”

Glancing over her shoulder when she heard the quiet gasp behind her, she smiled, genuinely happy that Ruby was, and as she did her hand bumped on a box that was precariously close to the edge. Surely, Weiss hadn’t been tall enough to push it in the back, to safety.

The box fell with both of them jumping back, hitting something else that crumbled under the box’s weight before landing with a loud thud on the floor, the missing comics spilling from the damaged box soundlessly in the sudden silence.

“Oh gosh, I’m so sorry Ruby!” She gasped, falling to her knees and feverishly looked over the comics, hoping none of them was damaged from the fall.

But when the presence behind her stayed still and silent, she paused, looking up at Ruby, but the leader’s attention had zeroed on something else in the walk-in.

It was another box, damaged at present, but she instantly knew what was inside when a bit of red fabric poked out of the damaged corner. And apparently, Ruby knew what it was, too.

The leader padded closer before slowly kneeling in front of the box, opening it with bated breath as Blake watched her, not sure if she had to stop her.

But when she saw tears welling up in her leader’s silver eye, she simply crawled closer, observing as Ruby grasped the cape with both hands, making it rustle quietly when she pulled it out of the box and into her lap.

“You kept it,” the leader quietly let out, her voice wavering. “I didn’t think I would ever see it again.”

“Of course we kept it,” Blake assured, keeping her voice as low as Ruby’s. “We… We knew that, someday… You would come back to us. One way or another.”

Her hands curling a bit more in the red fabric of the cape, Ruby merely hummed, keeping her attention on it before taking a sharp breath in, then moved to stand, extending the cloak in front of her, eyeing it with a dark expression.

As their stares went to the biggest darker spot on the fabric, she couldn’t help but stand and, after glancing quickly at Ruby, gestured at it.

“What happened?” She asked in a breath, wondering if Ruby would be willing to tell her. “Why was your cloak found in the Emerald Forest?”

It took a long moment before the leader gave some kind of sign that she heard her at all, but it was with a sigh that Ruby lowered the cape, instead gathering it in her arms with a sad, bitter smile.

“Would it surprise you if I said that Salem doesn’t take disobedience well?”

Blinking, she simply shook her head without a word as the leader sighed again, staring outside the window for a moment of stillness.

“She doesn’t take opposition and defiance well, either,” Ruby continued in a soft murmur. “An eye for an eye,” the leader reached a hand up, lightly tapping twice against the leather eyepatch covering the scar over her left eye. “And then… she took away the thing I cared about most, like a child with toys.”

Lowering her eyes to the cape, the leader pinched her lips for a second.

“Insult to injury. If I had known it would grow back in a day, I wouldn’t have stabbed her in the eye.”

Blake only stared at her leader as Ruby kept shifting in place, her attention solely on the cloak in her arms, almost cradling it, until she blinked, shaking herself into motion as she reached a hand to the cloak.

“I could wash it for you, so you could wear it again.”

A small, soft smile pulled the leader’s lips, and when Ruby looked up at her, there was a shadow in her eye as she offered the cloak back to Blake.

“Yeah,” the leader murmured, the small, sad smile never leaving her lips. “I’d like that.”


End file.
